Speaker 1: On the right side closet light Lucky Lucky drawing in
Speaker 1: the zine h Clark Joe Montanna rolls right, he throws
Speaker 1: it past to Only one person in the whole stand
Speaker 1: could catch the fingertips of Dwight Clark. Some players coming
Speaker 1: out with the right corner of my eye and just
Speaker 1: it's it to catch put another log FID. Nobody here
Speaker 1: is getting time. This is the Firepit hosted by Matt Janella.
Speaker 1: Where some might say Walter Yose is the Michael Jordan
Speaker 1: of sports photograph fee, It's actually more accurate to say
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's is the Walter Yose of basketball. Yos has
Speaker 1: been taking pictures professionally for fifty nine years. He has
Speaker 1: shot every Super Bowl. He has over three covers of
Speaker 1: Sports Illustrated, which includes action, portrait and Swimsuit. His versatility, personality,
Speaker 1: and talent, along with the trust and respect of his subjects,
Speaker 1: plus his passion for sports and his craft, have earned
Speaker 1: him a spot in the International Hall of Fame of Photography.
Speaker 1: I've done several stories on Yos through the years. I
Speaker 1: was lucky enough to edit some of his images. I
Speaker 1: carried cameras for him at a Super Bowl I've played
Speaker 1: golf with him and his two home courses, mon Talk
Speaker 1: Downs on Long Island and Crandon Park on Key Biscaine.
Speaker 1: His swing, like his iconic career, is one long exposure.
Speaker 1: Today he tells the story of chasing Tiger to recreate Peskin,
Speaker 1: almost botching a portrait session with Jack and Arnie, arguably
Speaker 1: the most famous image in NFL history, and he shares
Speaker 1: several stories about a special relationship with MJ to offer
Speaker 1: some perspective and insight into the photographer and the man
Speaker 1: we've called upon. Neil Lifer Yos's counterparted Sports Illustrated, going
Speaker 1: back to when they were teenagers, where Lifer has Ali
Speaker 1: over Liston Yos has Dwight Clark over Everson Wolves. Walter
Speaker 1: and I were fanatical about covering every big event we
Speaker 1: could cover, and each one of us, like I say,
Speaker 1: wanted You wanted to get to cover of the magazine,
Speaker 1: which essentially was the gold medal. Uh. You wanted to
Speaker 1: get the opening spread in the magazine, which was always
Speaker 1: a big picture, and unlike I think most of the
Speaker 1: other guys, Walter I wanted to get both every time.
Speaker 1: The other voice you'll hear throughout is Christian Yos the
Speaker 1: oldest of Eva and Walter's two sons. Christian is a photographer,
Speaker 1: a photo editor, and is currently the executive producer of
Speaker 1: video at Discovery Golf. You know, they're always talked about
Speaker 1: this Yos luck and I've never said that it's luck.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a guy that has grown up
Speaker 1: obsessed with sports. You know, he was a great athlete
Speaker 1: in his own right. Um, And it's just fascinated with
Speaker 1: the game and the movement and knowing where to be
Speaker 1: and with the plays that are going to happen. Come
Speaker 1: from like this life of just living sports. Um. And
Speaker 1: I've always attested his luck to just knowledge, you know,
Speaker 1: like that's it. I mean, has there been some luck involved, probably,
Speaker 1: but you know, no one where to be on the field,
Speaker 1: and no one which way a ball is. You know
Speaker 1: a throw is going to go. Is comes from a
Speaker 1: life of just obsessed with sports. Born in nine, Walter A.
Speaker 1: Yos Jr. Grew up in East Orange, New Jersey, the
Speaker 1: son of a decorated jazz musician and the grandson of
Speaker 1: Nimble Fingers, a ragtime piano player, and, as Walter puts it,
Speaker 1: the pride of Brooklyn. I'd see my father on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and as a musician, a lot of musicians life photography,
Speaker 1: and that was his hobby throughout his life. And he
Speaker 1: got me interested, and we went to a New York
Speaker 1: Giants football game in n bought season tickets, and he
Speaker 1: bought a F four tackym or lens and the Sahi
Speaker 1: Pentax camera on the Upper West Side where all the
Speaker 1: camera stores were back in the fifties, and he used
Speaker 1: to go on there. I'd go in with him and
Speaker 1: you know, talk cameras by didn't know. So a six
Speaker 1: game season, then at home, you know, twelve game regular season,
Speaker 1: so a game four, I finally got the nerve to
Speaker 1: take this hammer. You know, fans were hitting their heads
Speaker 1: banging into it, and I said, I didn't want any
Speaker 1: part of this. I don't like confrontation like that. And
Speaker 1: I shot, you know, ten pictures or something. We went back.
Speaker 1: He started where my home was, process that role of
Speaker 1: film and held it up to the light. As my
Speaker 1: former managing editor Terry McDonald said, my future was unlocked.
Speaker 1: While in high school and if he wasn't playing stickball
Speaker 1: or football in the streets, Yose attended the Germaine School
Speaker 1: of Photography in New York and then I graduated me
Speaker 1: starr Inch High School, and you know, late June, and
Speaker 1: on July six, I got called from my first assignment
Speaker 1: and was paid a hundred dollars. I mean that's a
Speaker 1: lot of money. And they want to go to football games. Okay,
Speaker 1: we want to go to the giant game on the sidelines. Really,
Speaker 1: And then I get back to my friends. They're paying
Speaker 1: to go on the sidelines and take pictures. You're like
Speaker 1: a thief. I mean, who wouldn't want to do this.
Speaker 1: I mean we're all children at that point, just a
Speaker 1: kid in a man's world. Young Yosts called Sports Illustrated
Speaker 1: and convinced George blood Good, the magazine's deputy picture of
Speaker 1: her at the time, to review his portfolio. Blood Good
Speaker 1: agreed to provide Young Yos with film and processing for
Speaker 1: select assignments. He sent me to Buffalo, like nine sixty two.
Speaker 1: So this is when I started. It's the first plane
Speaker 1: I ever took. Remember getting air sick on the plane.
Speaker 1: I was a nervous wreck. And I went to Buffalo
Speaker 1: and shot Boston versus Buffalo the American Football League. And
Speaker 1: there was a running back on Buffalo. His name was
Speaker 1: Albert Golden Wheels Dubini and he ran a kickoff back
Speaker 1: a hundred and five yards and I had the whole sequence.
Speaker 1: And apparently during the meeting with the manage entitor, Andre Laguerre,
Speaker 1: he said, who took these pictures? He says, Oh, that's
Speaker 1: my guy, Walter Ryos, And then I was in the lineup.
Speaker 1: Never know Golden Wheels do Benny and did it for me.
Speaker 1: Yos would ride the heels of Golden Wheels to the
Speaker 1: arm of Johnny You. I got my first pass to
Speaker 1: go to Baltimore in San Francisco in Baltimore game a
Speaker 1: Memorial Stadium. I guess I'm eighteen. With a minute left
Speaker 1: in the game, United strows his past to Jimmy Yord
Speaker 1: and he makes his bobbling catch with his pinkie down
Speaker 1: in one frame with a back up and shoot it
Speaker 1: and on the train like and everyone's onm me. You
Speaker 1: get that picture, kid, I said, I don't think so,
Speaker 1: you know, oh, how can you miss it? Like you
Speaker 1: get home and you develop it and it's a shark.
Speaker 1: There's any picture I've ever taken. And that was my
Speaker 1: first action shot. Back in the sixties, there was no
Speaker 1: such thing as auto focus Neo Lifer remembers the ore
Speaker 1: image and Walter did this beautiful picture just as the
Speaker 1: ball is going in his hands. I know how hard
Speaker 1: that is to do. If you did that once or
Speaker 1: twice a season, that was you had a pretty good season.
Speaker 1: It was easy to get a running back going through
Speaker 1: the line, or getting the quarterback getting sacked, but to
Speaker 1: get a receiver running at you or away from you,
Speaker 1: or whichever thing and get the ball just Walter did
Speaker 1: that all the time. Proper focus is only one of
Speaker 1: the key ingredients to a memorable image. The picture is
Speaker 1: sort of simple to me a good background, good life,
Speaker 1: and then make something good happen in front of it.
Speaker 1: Because if your background stinks, you've got a bad picture.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've edited my picture. I'm possessed with backgrounds.
Speaker 1: To me, it starts with where am I shooting this person.
Speaker 1: I can make the light happen, but it has to
Speaker 1: start with that. And you think of like great photographers
Speaker 1: use up every millimeter of the frame perfectly. And the
Speaker 1: greatest is Jim Knockway. He never crops a picture. Every
Speaker 1: speck in that picture is there for a reason, and
Speaker 1: that's what a great picture gives you. As the golf
Speaker 1: photo entered Sports Illustrated, I would try to hire Yos
Speaker 1: to shoot the majors. He had no interest. He had
Speaker 1: hoofted around enough courses, covering legends like Palmer, Nicholas, Player
Speaker 1: and Watson. But then a long came, a kid named Woods.
Speaker 1: The first time I photographed Tiger, it was two thousand.
Speaker 1: I wanted to recreate the famous Ben Hogan one iron
Speaker 1: shot that high Peskin took. So I went out with
Speaker 1: a speed graphic camera, four by five camera with my
Speaker 1: assistant Tom and the chum bucket where you take peel
Speaker 1: up the polaroids. Well, the problem with that cameras you
Speaker 1: have to get close because it's sort of a wide angle,
Speaker 1: normal lens. You never met Tiger. You didn't introduce yourself,
Speaker 1: You didn't try to tell him what you were trying
Speaker 1: to do. You didn't he didn't know who you were. No,
Speaker 1: you didn'tmont talked to me. I can be aggressive this way,
Speaker 1: and you know golfers hate for Tiger. Was getting too
Speaker 1: close to him, and there's one spot they really detest
Speaker 1: behind him. So I'm I'm around him. I don't know
Speaker 1: what hole around maybe sixty. He's already I can see
Speaker 1: him getting a cheat. I said to my assistant Tom,
Speaker 1: let's get out of here. Let's go. Let's go over
Speaker 1: on the fairway, put on your sunglasses. So as we're
Speaker 1: standing there, and I must have been ten fifteen feet
Speaker 1: behind him, and I could Steve Steve Williams is they're
Speaker 1: talking like, oh ship, Steve sauncers over and he goes,
Speaker 1: excuse me, Mike, have you ever covered of golf tournament before?
Speaker 1: I said, oh, yes, sir, and so I continued my
Speaker 1: relentless pursuit of Tiger with wide angle lens. Is I
Speaker 1: was in his nostrils. I've been trying to have so
Speaker 1: many golf tournaments. That's why I told my sister. I said, no,
Speaker 1: time we get the shot and we get thrown out,
Speaker 1: who gives a crap? Throw me out? I'd be happy.
Speaker 1: Two months later, Sports Illustrated signs me to do a
Speaker 1: cover of Tiger at Ailesworth, the one in the Adirondack chair.
Speaker 1: So we go to Lake Windermere and put him in
Speaker 1: the Adirondack chair. And now I'm being introduced to Tiger,
Speaker 1: and I mean great admirer of obviously, I said Tiger
Speaker 1: on Walter Yos. I said, you know, I covered you
Speaker 1: with LaCosta. I don't know if you've noticed me, he says,
Speaker 1: every whole bingo. But we kept became friends after the
Speaker 1: photograph for Nike. I photographed him for Golf Digus in December,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, we go back twenty years and
Speaker 1: it's really a nice relationship. Walter always seems to get
Speaker 1: what he's looking for, creates the image he envisions, which
Speaker 1: isn't to say there have been some hiccups. Christian Yos
Speaker 1: explains he shows up a daily to shoot a portrait
Speaker 1: of Jack Nicholas and Oura Palmer and I was there
Speaker 1: and he didn't show and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: you know what am I gonna do? You know, it's
Speaker 1: freaking Jack and Arnie and you know there's agents involved.
Speaker 1: And I'm in mont Talk and Christian Colton he says,
Speaker 1: where are you? I said, my mom Talk. He says,
Speaker 1: the shoots today. I said what? So I flee out
Speaker 1: of there. I drive down to Philly. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: like a day late. So I get to the press
Speaker 1: tentp and I see Jack. I find Jack. Will you
Speaker 1: do it today? Okay? After a munch, no problem. Arnie
Speaker 1: had just left. It was raining that day. He left
Speaker 1: the pudding green and I said, whoever the running the
Speaker 1: press desk? I said, you have to get me in
Speaker 1: touch with the Arnold so I can't. I can't give
Speaker 1: you any numbers. I said, please, this is I'll dial
Speaker 1: is home number for you. Rings and rings and rings
Speaker 1: and rings, and just let it hang up. He goes hello,
Speaker 1: I said, Arnold. Hey, it's Walter Goes. I said, I'm
Speaker 1: sorry being a day late. I said, and you possibly
Speaker 1: do it today. Yeah, sure, I'll come over. And I
Speaker 1: brought the two them into this hotel room impose them together.
Speaker 1: This was special it. But with the end of the
Speaker 1: day I walk out of here. You know, it was
Speaker 1: at a golf course and the most famous golfers of
Speaker 1: all time being together. And this woman goes up to
Speaker 1: her husband because you're not gonna believe her. I just saw.
Speaker 1: I just saw Arnie and Jack. He said, I was
Speaker 1: stop it, and he walked out. Did you ever have
Speaker 1: the sense that between Jack and Arnie they knew what
Speaker 1: they were doing, they knew they needed each other. That's
Speaker 1: what makes sports great. You know, you need somebody out there.
Speaker 1: If Jack, we're all alone out there I'm sorry. Jack
Speaker 1: was Jack, and then Arnie the most personable, charming, charismatic
Speaker 1: one of them, right up there with Alli of all time,
Speaker 1: run around hat list, the cigarette, the swagger, Arnie's armies,
Speaker 1: all the women, the men. Everyone wanted to be with Arnie.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's one of the great people I've ever met.
Speaker 1: And you know the picture of them at the table,
Speaker 1: I took him sixty five Arnie and Jack. There's three
Speaker 1: signed images by both of them and myself. I gave
Speaker 1: one to Jack, gave one to Arnie, and I have one.
Speaker 1: And the last time I went to Latrobe and went
Speaker 1: down the staircase downstairs, that picture was on the wall.
Speaker 1: It was like hamnt a lot, Arnie, Jack and Tiger.
Speaker 1: That was obviously Yoss, big three in golf. But I
Speaker 1: asked him for his three most memorable images Slam Dunk
Speaker 1: at eight in Chicago, the Blue Dunk in eighties seven Mile, Illinois,
Speaker 1: and January two, Dwight Clark's catch the story with the catches.
Speaker 1: In July, I was up by sports illustrator to spend
Speaker 1: the season with the Cowboys, So I started in Thousand Oaks, California.
Speaker 1: Every game I'm with, I'm in with the team. It's
Speaker 1: like family. Now. I've seen all kinds of things you
Speaker 1: would even imagine. I'm not gonna talk about in the
Speaker 1: locker room. Give us, give us something, give us something
Speaker 1: you saw because you're embedded with This is Tom Landry.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna, okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you one thing.
Speaker 1: This is Tom Landry Tom Lantry. Basically he said alone
Speaker 1: on me once and we never said another word for
Speaker 1: the entire season. You couldn't have cared less if I
Speaker 1: was in there, but I was, and that was it.
Speaker 1: I you know what, I'm not gonna talk to him.
Speaker 1: I posed him once on the field with the gil
Speaker 1: Brand and the other owners. That was it. Stayed away
Speaker 1: from you stayed away from people like Landry or Lombardi.
Speaker 1: Stay away. So there was a player on the team
Speaker 1: and this was like week two, and you know, you
Speaker 1: start with a team, you stay back. You don't start
Speaker 1: putting your camera and pay people's faces. And this guy
Speaker 1: comes up with me, does I want to take a picture.
Speaker 1: I want you to take a picture of me being
Speaker 1: shot up? You know, I look around. Okay, they're testing me.
Speaker 1: I said, why would you want me to do that?
Speaker 1: He says, so I can give it to my son
Speaker 1: so he never plays pro football. I still do it
Speaker 1: on one condition, I'll give you the role of film.
Speaker 1: So I wanted the trainer's room. You got shot up.
Speaker 1: I shot it, and I gave him a roll of film,
Speaker 1: and he became my best friend on the team. I'm
Speaker 1: not mentioning any names. So we go to San Francisco
Speaker 1: and you know, teams passing out these energy bill black
Speaker 1: take breaks down, lack take acid. I mean everyone's taking
Speaker 1: pr guys, give me six of those things. Almost took
Speaker 1: the field. I was so wired up my games going
Speaker 1: for you. Well, you know, next game is the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: And then with what fifty eight seconds left in the game,
Speaker 1: Joe Montana rolls right lucky lucky, drawing an anzine WHI
Speaker 1: throws it pass to only one person the whole stand
Speaker 1: could catch the fingertips of Dwight Clark, a moment that
Speaker 1: reversed the course for not only Dwayne Clark, but for
Speaker 1: the forty Niners franchise and for a season long project
Speaker 1: on the Cowboys. So I pressed Jos for more details
Speaker 1: as to why he was ready with the short legs
Speaker 1: sports lustrand the cover either the year before Dave Logan
Speaker 1: Cleveland making it one hand and catch on the sidelines,
Speaker 1: and when Montana roll right, I was with a zoom,
Speaker 1: like a zoom, I have that picture, big lenses down
Speaker 1: and I got the fifty ready and I shoot the
Speaker 1: sequence of the past and I dropped it and I'm
Speaker 1: pre focused, like twelve ft so i just picked up
Speaker 1: the camera and I see some players coming out with
Speaker 1: the right corner of my eye and he just it's
Speaker 1: it just to catch. It's like, that's all the same chance.
Speaker 1: Favors were prepared, man, So you know I was thinking ahead.
Speaker 1: You just never expected a play of that significance to happen.
Speaker 1: But that's why you gotta be ready. And the season
Speaker 1: is over and it's like, I mean, catch didn't exist
Speaker 1: at that point. This was just a touchdown. And I
Speaker 1: went into the locker room, the single saddest place I've
Speaker 1: ever been outside a funeral of personal friends. The silence
Speaker 1: was definite, as they say, And that was it for
Speaker 1: the season, and the magazine ran all of John Underwood's
Speaker 1: texting almost none of my pictures, which really pissed me off.
Speaker 1: But that cover came out next week, which I didn't
Speaker 1: even know I was on the road again called the catch.
Speaker 1: So suddenly, over you know, forty years, this has become
Speaker 1: arguably the most famous picture in Propobal history. And oddly
Speaker 1: enough I never met Dwight Clark, but we were always
Speaker 1: connected by a five of a second, and you know,
Speaker 1: obviously I'm happy I took that picture. Now for more
Speaker 1: on this memorable moment, once again we hear from Lifer
Speaker 1: and Christian Yos the catch. I like to say, what
Speaker 1: separates the average sports attag from the truly great ones
Speaker 1: is there so much luck involved in sports. She got
Speaker 1: to be in the right position. The catch happened right
Speaker 1: in front of Walter. It could have happened that the
Speaker 1: other corner of the end zone, and you're not in
Speaker 1: the position. What separates the really great ones from the
Speaker 1: ordinary photographers is when you're in the right position, you
Speaker 1: don't miss. And Walter was clearly in the lucky seat
Speaker 1: and he didn't miss. My favorite party in My favorite
Speaker 1: antidote about the catch is not so much like what
Speaker 1: went into it, what happened. My favorite part of this
Speaker 1: at some point, like when you watch the footage, the
Speaker 1: camera you know hands and follows Dwight Cark and that
Speaker 1: it goes up and when you look in the background
Speaker 1: at all the photographers and media and they're all like
Speaker 1: looking in amazement about what's happening, and there's one guy
Speaker 1: with a camera up to his face and it's my dad.
Speaker 1: Jose's greatness is not just capturing an image, it's also conceptualizing. Walter,
Speaker 1: let you go to Chicago and shoot Michael Jordan's So
Speaker 1: they sent me to lys Illinois had a kid's camp
Speaker 1: and his brother was there. I did some portraits of him,
Speaker 1: and I had the idea for the Shadow of the Dunk.
Speaker 1: Did you know him at that time? No, I never meant,
Speaker 1: but he was so charming as you can see from
Speaker 1: t V. I mean, there is no doubt, no doubt
Speaker 1: who the greatest, coolest, most dominating, meanest basketball player was
Speaker 1: at all time. No one more beautiful than Michael. I'm Jesus.
Speaker 1: So there was a huge parking lot at this school
Speaker 1: of college or something. So I painted one section read
Speaker 1: not me. I had someone to it in another section
Speaker 1: blue because I wasn't sure which uniform he was gonna
Speaker 1: show up. And if he sho showed up him the
Speaker 1: white uniform, we would have come with a red. Then
Speaker 1: I go out Up says you can't have a stationary
Speaker 1: basket to create the up for shadow line and angle.
Speaker 1: I brought in a basket I called the NBA. I
Speaker 1: called someone in Chicago. The only place I could get
Speaker 1: an NBA basket was trucked in from St. Louis. Back
Speaker 1: in those days. Who cared about money. So a guy
Speaker 1: trucked in an NBA basket which you could lower and
Speaker 1: then said it any angle so you get shadow in
Speaker 1: the right spot. Then you have to do it as
Speaker 1: a specific time of the day. It can't be too
Speaker 1: early or too late. Their clouds. You've got a problem.
Speaker 1: So Michael comes out and his red we go blue.
Speaker 1: I go up the cherry picker. Maybe there's ten dunks
Speaker 1: and the blue dunk came to be. You painted the
Speaker 1: asphalt and depart from that. Did you have to repaint
Speaker 1: it afterwards? You just hell no, I left town. I
Speaker 1: got out of this bast like good again. As Christian
Speaker 1: Jose explains as it relates to m J and other megastars,
Speaker 1: timing is always a factor. Think about like my dad's
Speaker 1: career and it you know, like there's this roller coaster
Speaker 1: peak and think about the athletes that he had access to,
Speaker 1: you know, Michael Tiger, Montana, Ripken, Kobe Slater. I mean,
Speaker 1: here's a guy who's really good at what he does
Speaker 1: and has access to incredible athletes pre Internet age, right,
Speaker 1: So they need the media, you know, like magazines and
Speaker 1: newspapers and TV are important, and you know, like here's
Speaker 1: a guy, here's a photographer who they can request. I mean, Cheater,
Speaker 1: you name it. I mean they wanted to work with
Speaker 1: him because they trusted him, and they know that they
Speaker 1: needed their name. The pictures uh in these media outlets
Speaker 1: and um kind of frtuitous timing on some of it.
Speaker 1: The slam dunk contest in the late eighties mattered thanks
Speaker 1: in large part the little guys like Spud Webb. Then
Speaker 1: there's Clyde the Glide, Drexler, the Human Highlight Film, Dominique Wilkins,
Speaker 1: and in in Chicago Michael air Jordan's was the defending champion.
Speaker 1: Yet again, Yes, had a plan. I got the slam
Speaker 1: dunk causes in eight seven Seattle and lit it theatrical.
Speaker 1: That's some nice pictures, but I understood if you can't
Speaker 1: see the player's face, the dunk doesn't matter. And guys
Speaker 1: coming backwards and dunk. So I either asked Michael the
Speaker 1: gummest or smartest question, since I said, you can always
Speaker 1: get no. He's sitting there before the game, and I'm
Speaker 1: there like a four hour before because I've strokes like
Speaker 1: the arena. I say, Michaels Walters. He said a little cold,
Speaker 1: I said, Michael. I explained the situation about Seattle, and
Speaker 1: I said, well, is there anyone you could tell me
Speaker 1: which way you're gonna take off from? He looks out
Speaker 1: of him. He goes sure, And I said, well, how
Speaker 1: are you gonna do that? He says, I'll put my
Speaker 1: finger down on my knee and I'll point. I said,
Speaker 1: you can remember this, He says, watch me, because everything
Speaker 1: is a game. Here's the story. Wilkins finishays with a h.
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's needs a forty in to tie forty nine
Speaker 1: to win creativity and imagine ation to the key rust.
Speaker 1: He's gotta make the dunk to look over the bench finger. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm moving to the right side. So it comes down
Speaker 1: to the last two dunks. One that proceeded mine, which
Speaker 1: looked like slammed up. So the next to last dunk,
Speaker 1: I'm right at the Stanton, I'm like close up like
Speaker 1: that at the hustle blout of the super Wide. He
Speaker 1: dunks and he lands in my lap. Last dunk, he
Speaker 1: goes in the same spot, and I'm in the same
Speaker 1: spot again, like my position, and he looks at me.
Speaker 1: He goes like the and I moved over three ft
Speaker 1: one frame. That's the slam dun Jourdan the fifty feet
Speaker 1: of friends. This championship in the Chicago Bulls won their
Speaker 1: first of six NBA titles. Jordan had averaged over thirty
Speaker 1: points per game, six rebounds, five and a half assists,
Speaker 1: and had been awarded his second of four NBA m
Speaker 1: v P s. Again, Yos was conceptualizing it was a
Speaker 1: bad year two. I was having a really bad year.
Speaker 1: There were no jobs, and I was like, I've got
Speaker 1: to get some work, man. And there was a book
Speaker 1: of Elvis Presley shot in fifty six behind the scenes
Speaker 1: by Albert Wertheimer. Was great photo diaries of all time.
Speaker 1: So I flew to Chicago. I had a job in Hawaii, actually,
Speaker 1: and on the way in I stopped in Chicago. I
Speaker 1: just waited for the locker room to clear out. He
Speaker 1: walked out and said, hey, Walter, what are you doing here?
Speaker 1: I said, I've got an idea. He said, your idea
Speaker 1: is usually mean work. As we walked out to the
Speaker 1: edge of the stadium, we're still indoors and these guys
Speaker 1: with Eric Gus and I pitched him on this idea
Speaker 1: that this would be your photo album for the rest
Speaker 1: of the life. Look, you already got the NBA, your ring,
Speaker 1: your m v P, you got your children, you get
Speaker 1: your family, pretty much done it already. Why don't we
Speaker 1: document one year? I like this idea, give me a
Speaker 1: week and I flew back and I said, what do
Speaker 1: you think? He said, let's do it. We just shook hands.
Speaker 1: We have no publisher, no title, and I think I
Speaker 1: was like thirty thousand into it. Yeah. I spent a
Speaker 1: lot of time at the Ritz Carlton in Chicago in
Speaker 1: the winter, flying all over the country. No one's paying anything.
Speaker 1: And then Mark Vansil, the writer, came up into the picture.
Speaker 1: Michael introduced us one day soon, Walter, I'm gonna introduce
Speaker 1: you someone, and we went into the black Hawks locker room.
Speaker 1: This is Mark Vansil. He's on the book, all right.
Speaker 1: So Mark became the writer and came up with the
Speaker 1: fantastic Tyble rare air, and we couldn't sell the book.
Speaker 1: We flew to San Francisco. The commons and the people
Speaker 1: we met with were the last people on earth would
Speaker 1: ever buy a book on an athlete. I remember we
Speaker 1: left her like, gosh, there's a long trip for nothing.
Speaker 1: They bought the book. So the book is published, no
Speaker 1: one cares about it, and then Michael's father's murdered, Michael
Speaker 1: retires there forgets on the live Ponds and Noble on
Speaker 1: Columbus Avenue. The book went from the basement to the
Speaker 1: front of the window, m and number one on the
Speaker 1: New York Times Bestseller others. That's sold better than any
Speaker 1: other prints. That book, eight hundred thousand books. So that
Speaker 1: was that's to me, Like, you know how much music
Speaker 1: means to me. That's like having one record that everyone knows.
Speaker 1: I always compare it to ize I left my art
Speaker 1: in San Francisco. Yeah, everyone knows that song. So you
Speaker 1: can think of Tony and one song and he's got it.
Speaker 1: How many people have one one thing that goes to
Speaker 1: number one like that, So that's very special to me.
Speaker 1: Michael Jordan's once said about Walter, he's fast and he's
Speaker 1: good lifer and Christian yoes reflect on rare Air. Walter's
Speaker 1: genius photographer was going to produce brilliant pictures if you
Speaker 1: have access and the ability to have the time to
Speaker 1: do it right. And obviously Michael gave Walter the time.
Speaker 1: I mean there were pictures and rare air. It's a
Speaker 1: picture in the bathtub I think, with him and his
Speaker 1: and his little kids as I remember, and I haven't
Speaker 1: looked at rare air for a while. I mean, how
Speaker 1: can you miss. It's incredible to think about the access
Speaker 1: that he had during that run. I mean, here is
Speaker 1: the the greatest team in sports, the biggest athlete on
Speaker 1: the face of the planet, and he's got the unlimited access.
Speaker 1: He's on the team buses, he's in he's in Michael's
Speaker 1: hotel room, he's in the trainers room, which you know,
Speaker 1: as we've learned, was like the inner sanctum. I mean,
Speaker 1: nobody was allowed in there. You're gonna keep doing it
Speaker 1: until you die, I hope. So I never want to retire.
Speaker 1: I love taking pictures. That's what I do best. I
Speaker 1: still there are gonna take him. Not a lot of
Speaker 1: jobs out there right now, but I'm not done. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's one picture that Walter shot that you wish you
Speaker 1: would have shot? I love to have gotten the first
Speaker 1: Super Bowl cover, and uh, you know because it was
Speaker 1: the first and I'm saying that now in two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty. I don't think I felt that strongly about
Speaker 1: it that year. And of the two, I got the
Speaker 1: second Super Bowl cover of Lombardi being carried off the field,
Speaker 1: but Walter got the first one, and he got the
Speaker 1: third one that Joe name is I would have liked.
Speaker 1: I've had all three. What are you most proud of
Speaker 1: of your dad? The thing I'm most proud of my
Speaker 1: father is the way that he's carried himself. You know
Speaker 1: he's always treated you know, his his big thing is
Speaker 1: the Golden Rule, and you know he's always wanted his
Speaker 1: reputation to procede him and I think it has. And
Speaker 1: you know, he treats people well, he cares about people.
Speaker 1: He's a family guy. I mean, he loves his grandkids.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's he's he's just I think, gone about
Speaker 1: his career and his personal life in the right way. Um.
Speaker 1: And for me, that's something I really look up to.
Speaker 1: It's a tradition on the fire Pit. We ask our guests,
Speaker 1: do you have a favorite fire pit that's a happy
Speaker 1: place point? Yeah, our pool in the summer in montok
Speaker 1: that's the pit. That's where the good stuff goes down. Well,
Speaker 1: that's what the kids are you know, it's hell, the grandkids,
Speaker 1: all families there. The pool be open in July. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Janella, your host of the fire Pit. As
Speaker 1: a listener to this podcast, my friends John Ashworth and
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Speaker 1: the meantime, make park not war, and stay safe out there.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the fire Pit. This podcast
Speaker 1: is produced by Alex and Peggy, edited by Rex Lint.
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